Nobuyuki Matoba, Ph.D.

Education:

B.S., Kyoto University, Kyoto Japan, 1996
Ph.D., Applied Life Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan, 2001
Postdoctoral Fellowship, Department of Plant Science, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 2002

Curriculum Vitae

Current Positions:

Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Louisville School of Medicine
Member, Care & Control Program, James Graham Brown Cancer Center
Member, Center for Predictive Medicine
Associate Member, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Louisville School of Medicine

Contact Information:

Clinical Translational Research Building, Room 615
University of Louisville
505 Hancock St.
Louisville, KY 40202, USA
Phone 502-852-8412
Fax 502-852-5468

Email: n.matoba@louisville.edu

Research Description:

The Matoba Lab is specialized in plant-made biopharmaceuticals research.  Our goal is to develop novel vaccines, immunotherapeutics, and antivirals based on protein engineering and plant biotechnology.  

Unlike conventional cell culture-based recombinant expression systems, whole plant-based protein production can be highly efficient and scalable by exploiting plant virus vectors, inexpensive natural resources and plant growth facilities (1).

Our research interests include: protein engineering; recombinant protein expression in plants; and pharmacological, toxicological and immunological characterizations of biopharmaceuticals.

Currently, we have two main projects.

1. High-mannose glycan-binding lectins and antibody-lectin fusion proteins.

Asparagine-linked high-mannose-type glycans constitute unique biomarkers found on the surfaces of various viruses (e.g., HIV, HCV, MERS-CoV, influenza, etc) and cancer cells.  To target these disease-associated glycans, we are utilizing naturally occurring sugar-binding proteins, or lectins, and their chimeras with human antibodies (2,3).

2. Enterotoxin-derived immuno-modulatory proteins.

Bacterial enterotoxins are known to elicit strong immuno-stimulatory effects.  These proteins may be exploited to enhance vaccine efficacy or to control deregulated immune activities of various autoimmune disorders (4-6).  We are currently developing an oral immunotherapeutic agent against inflammatory bowel diseases based on a plant-produced variant of cholera toxin B subunit (7,8).

Literature Cited:

  1. Matoba N, Davis KR, Palmer KE.  Recombinant protein expression in Nicotiana.  Methods in Molecular Biology 2011;701:199-219. PMID: 21181532.
  2. Matoba N, Husk AS, Barnett BW, Pickel MM, Arntzen CJ, Montefiori DC, Takahashi A, Tanno K, Omura S, Cao H, Mooney JP, Hanson CV, Tanaka H.  HIV-1 neutralization profile and plant-based recombinant expression of actinohivin, an Env glycan-specific lectin devoid of T-cell mitogenic activity.  PLoS One 2010 Jun 15;5(6):e11143. PMID: 20559567. PMCID: PMC2886112.
  3. Hamorsky KT, Grooms-Williams T, Husk AS, Bennett LJ, Palmer KE, Matoba N.  Efficient single tobamoviral vector-based bioproduction of broadly neutralizing anti-HIV-1 monoclonal antibody VRC01 in Nicotiana plants and its utility in combination microbicides.  Antimicrobial Agents & Chemotherapy 2013 May;57(5):2076-86. PMID: 23403432. PMCID: PMC3632893.
  4. Baldauf KJ, Royal JM, Hamorsky KT, Matoba N.  Cholera toxin B: One subunit with many pharmaceutical applications. Toxins 2015 Mar 20;7(3):974-96. PMID: 25802972. PMCID: PMC43795537.
  5. Matoba N.  N-Glycosylation of cholera toxin B subunit: serendipity for novel plant-made vaccines?  Frontiers in Plant Science 2015 Jan 23;6:1132. PMIC: 25614217. PMCID: PMC4303877.
  6. Royal JM, Matoba N.  Therapeutic potential of Cholera Toxin B Subunit for the treatment of inflammatory diseases of the mucosa. Toxins 2017 Nov 23;9(12). pii: E379. PMID: 29168738. PMCID: PMC5744099.
  7. Hamorsky KT, Kouokam JC, Bennett LJ, Baldauf KJ, Kajiura H, Fujiyama K, Matoba N.  Rapid and scalable plant-based production of a cholera toxin B subunit variant to aid in mass vaccination against cholera outbreaks.  PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases 2013;7(3):e2046. PMID: 23505583. PMCID: PMD3591335.
  8. Baldauf KJ, Royal JM, Kouokam JC, Haribabu B, Jala VR, Yaddanapudi K, Hamorsky KT, Dryden GW, Matoba N.  Oral administration of a recombinant cholera toxin B subunit promotes mucosal healing in the colon.  Mucosal Immunology 2017 Jul;10(4):887-900. PMID: 27805617.

PubMed Information